ubuntu printer sharing - XP Pro vs Home weirdness

AndyG · 02-17-2007, 06:22 PM

I'm setting up my Ubuntu server box as a home print server.

Dramatis Personae:

Server: Ubuntu Edgy Eft 6.10, CUPS/SAMBA installed, Samsung ML-2010 printer via USB (ethernet to modem/router). It's not the server edition - I use it for programming and general-purpose stuff as well.

My box: dual boot XP Pro and Fedora Core 4 (ethernet)

Other Half's laptop: XP home (wireless connection)

The printer installed on the server with no problems, test page prints. It's set up for sharing. I've set up SAMBA and CUPS per the ubuntu how-to for sharing the printer across the network (all my boxen have fixed IPs).

On my box, from XP Pro, I went through the add printer routine, and it detected and set up the network printer with no problems, test page prints OK.

From the other half's laptop, XP home has a slightly different setup routine, can't autodetect the printer on the server, and refuses to connect when the printer is specified, using either the hostname or the IP to address it.

The other half has a user account on my machine. Logging in on that ID, I find the network printer works, so it's not an ID issue (our user IDs and passwords are common on all machines).

I suspect it's an XP Home/Pro thing - but I'm not sure where to go next, and google isn't turning up anything useful thus far. Any ideas?

Buickman · 02-17-2007, 06:26 PM

Do you have a firewall installed on Ubuntu, like firestarter? I found that I had to open port 631, and also had to allow the IPs of the XP boxes, but I could've just been doing something wrong to begin with.

eaux-yeah · 02-17-2007, 06:30 PM

Quote:

From the other half's laptop, XP home has a slightly different setup routine, can't autodetect the printer on the server, and refuses to connect when the printer is specified, using either the hostname or the IP to address it.

Is a firewall turned on on that XP box? When you try via IP address, are you using the correct protocol? Default CUPS setup should use ipp (port 631). Maybe add that?
Your CUPSD log files should be reporting the errors.

Curious, can you access the cups web administration page from the XP box? http://ip_address:631

AndyG · 02-17-2007, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buickman

Do you have a firewall installed on Ubuntu, like firestarter? I found that I had to open port 631, and also had to allow the IPs of the XP boxes, but I could've just been doing something wrong to begin with.

Not unless it was installed by default, and silently - I'm trusting the router at this point. I did get the warning that port 631 would be opened if I shared printers, but if it was a firewall I shouldn't be able to access it from any other machine (as I've not done anything by way of firewall configuration it should be all or nothing).

Buickman · 02-17-2007, 06:54 PM

Ubuntu doesn't install a firewall be default. I had to install it later.

I've never used xp home, but I figure it should allow a network printer. But then again, home has several options turned off.

AndyG · 02-17-2007, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eaux-yeah

Is a firewall turned on on that XP box? When you try via IP address, are you using the correct protocol? Default CUPS setup should use ipp (port 631). Maybe add that?
Your CUPSD log files should be reporting the errors.

Curious, can you access the cups web administration page from the XP box? http://ip_address:631

Both XP boxes have Zone Alarm installed (config should be identical).

I've tried the following means of addressing (the printer name, ML-2010, is taken from the XP Pro test page output, which reports Port name(s) \\HALFRUNT\ML-2010 - I don't know how to get the name from the Ubuntu box if it's different form the default name on the desktop)

The wizard starts with local or network printer -> network

Browse for a printer option results in the MS Windows network icon - no printers, nowhere to go

Connect to this printer (prime candidate) - the following all fail:
//halfrunt/ML-2010
//192.168.1.xxx/ML-2010
//192.168.1.xxx/lp
Reversing the slashes made no difference.

Connect to a printer on the Internet/home/office network
I repeated all the above, prefixed with http: per the hint onscreen. No joy.

I can connect to the SWAT web page from the laptop, but (rightly) with no admin rights.

Nothing in the log files that looks relevant - I don't think it's getting to the point of CUPS being involved, as there's no access.

eaux-yeah · 02-17-2007, 07:20 PM

Buickman, FYI. Ubuntu DOES install a firewall by default, just not a pleasant frontend to it, like firestarter. It's called IPTables. You can tell if it's enables and working by typing:
iptables -L -n

I don't think that's the problem here, though.

Andy, in the URL section of the Printer panel (XP), the correct syntax should be:
http://ip_address:631/printername on a *nix box, replace http:// with ipp://

eaux-yeah · 02-17-2007, 07:50 PM

My mistake, Andy.

it's http://ip_address:631/printers/printername

instead of http://ip_address:631/printername

AndyG · 02-17-2007, 08:14 PM

It *was* zone alarm (disabled it entirely in desperation, and Bingo!). It still had an old range of trusted addresses, but somehow we've gone six months without it affecting anything until now.

A thousand apologies, gents - I suppose that's what I get for trying to fix things post midnight.

Watch this space for episode II - file sharing.

Buickman · 02-17-2007, 08:19 PM

Cool. Glad it's working.

File sharing, huh? I've got it down as far as sharing from an ntfs drive to a linux system, but if you're sharing from linux to xp, then I'll be learning with you.

AndyG · 02-17-2007, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buickman

Cool. Glad it's working.

File sharing, huh? I've got it down as far as sharing from an ntfs drive to a linux system, but if you're sharing from linux to xp, then I'll be learning with you.

That's the plan. Thinking about it, when we've saved files from the laptop to the server before, it's been via SFTP/SCP - which wouldn't trouble Zone Alarm, - it will be listed as a trusted application. Doh.

AndyG · 02-18-2007, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buickman

Cool. Glad it's working.

File sharing, huh? I've got it down as far as sharing from an ntfs drive to a linux system, but if you're sharing from linux to xp, then I'll be learning with you.

Turned out to be no problem at all. Step-by-step here http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Edgy#How_to_install_Samba_Server_for_files. 2Ffolders_sharing_service